My reluctant journey that I am starting, to de-junk, de-tox, de-stress and heal. As I learn I will share these learnings to hopefully help and inspire others to make small positive changes in their own lives. In an age of rampant chronic inflammation and disease, it is vital to know what we are putting into our bodies and the effect it has. After all, our health and the health of our children is the most precious gift we have. Without health we have no wealth and our potential is restricted.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Stinky Stuff

One of the things I really hadn't given a second thought to, when I started trying to be more healthy, was what we put ON ourselves. I was so pre-occupied about what we put IN ourselves that this little gem didn't cross my mind. I remember Mrs Sharples, my standard 6 (Grade 8) Home Economics teacher, warning us about wearing anti-perspirant deodorants. She made sense at the time, saying anything that stops the sweat from leaving your body cannot be a good thing as it forces your body to absorb it and release it in another way. Agreed, but at the tender age of 13 she was speaking to bullet-proof teenagers who were boy-crazy and were only interested in smelling nice, so that that boys would like them and girls wouldn't tease them. We were not very receptive.

When I stumbled across this article Top 7 Ingredients to avoid in a deodorant, I decided to check my deodorant's ingredients and low and behold, mine has 6 out of 7 of the toxic ingredients! Seeing as I have been using deodorant for MANY years (I'm not going to say how many, but a lot), this can't be good for me, putting these chemicals on my skin day in and day out. Mitchum deodorant advertises that their product is so effective that you can skip a day. The reason for this is that the chemicals remain on your skin even after washing, again a bit of an eye-opener.

Okay so this article makes sense and I think I should make a change, scan down to what they suggest......

BUT

What do they recommend? Not shaving! Apparently openiong up the hair folicle after shaving is the kiss of death, allowing the toxins free access to your pit and lymph nodes. Otherwise? Washing your pits with soap and water twice a day! Seriously?? Who has the time to do that? I can just picture me, excusing myself from a meeting and nipping into the bathroom at work for "the wash". Seriously, how would I do it? Have one arm in my blouse, the rest of the top around my neck, my bra wound around the blouse already around my neck, while I lean over the basin and wash my arm pits one at a time, trying not to splash on my bra, top, shoes etc! Lovely image. And then I suppose I would either have to bring my own bar of soap or dispenser to work or use the pink standard-issue soap from the hand wash dispenser, boy I'd love to smell like that all day *not*. Then do I have to hang under the hot-air blower to dry off? I can see those promotional prospects disappearing before my eyes as I get labelled as the whack-job in the office. OK to be fair I may already have that title........

Googling this topic has been interesting! Apparently I can even make my own deodorant wahahahahaha *pause* wahahahahahaha. I'd love to spend my weekend making my own deodorant *not*.

Why is EVERYTHING healthy so damn INCONVENIENT?? Well it does seems that way. Okay, way down at the bottom of the article it does state that you could find some natural deo and I think I've seen a Salt Crystal one somewhere long long ago and there are quite a few on the internet. So I suppose I better start looking around to see where on earth I can find a natural deo without importing it from Germany. If I find one I'll let you know!